Junior
by sorenalice
Summary: AU- Vlad is stuck babysitting for the Fentons. He didn't expect the world as he knew it to be shattered, but it was, and he couldn't be happier.


**Junior**

_Badger cereal oneshot for __Lordfruitloop__ for christmas! It's a little angsty in the middle but it gets happy, so yeah! Au in which Danny gets his ghost powers when he's three and his parents help him as much as they can and I always think it's sad when an au has happy things. So, yeah. I hope you enjoy._

Why did they do this to me?

Wasn't it bad enough that they had practically half killed him, now this?

I glared at the 6 year old sitting, playing with his green toys. The boy must've really liked green- everything he owned was green. He made crashing noises and bashed some toy cars together.

I don't even like kids that much! Why did they have to make me babysit him?

I looked at the note in my hands again. Maddie and Jack had thankfully given me a set of instructions on what to do with 'Danny'. I prefer the boy's given name- Daniel. It's much stronger and more mature than Danny. I read through the paper, making sure I knew what to do.

Danny is a wonderful boy who is very curious and mischievous. Be sure to lock all of your doors and keep an eye on him otherwise you'll lose track of him and he'll be off who knows where doing who knows what. He'll want to play hide and seek with you, but you'll never find him- trust us. DO NOT PLAY HIDE AND SEEK.

He has special vitamins that I've cooked into his drinks and snacks so he'll eat them. If he wants a snack, only give him the ones in the bag. The same goes for drinks. At meals he can eat whatever you're having and probably will- he's not fussy.

For bedtime you can just put him in a bed with his special blankie under him and he'll fall right asleep. Make sure to give him the stuffed badger he calls Fuffy. He wasn't a very creative namer when he was younger, and had trouble with saying the letter 'L'.

Danny can be very clumsy and can trip and drop things a lot. We've packed a first aid kit with everything you'll need and probably more.

Thank you very much for doing this, we really appreciate it.

Maddie and Jack Fenton

I glanced back up at the boy who was now making airplane noises and making the cars fly around. He was surprisingly short for being Jack Fenton's son, but his black hair and blue eyes were unmistakably Jack's.

But of all people, why the one they abandoned in a hospital after causing a horrible, disfiguring accident?

I've never even babysat before. The only reason I accepted was because Maddie pleaded with me. I don't actually know what I'm doing.

"Hey, Vlad."

I looked up at Daniel. He was staring at me, a smile on his young face.

"You wanna play a game?"

I tried to ignore how much that sounded like a line from a horror movie and nodded, smiling at the boy.

"What would you like to play, Daniel?"

"Wanna play hide and seek?" an evil grin grew on his face and he laughed a little. I smiled back at him.

"I heard you are very good at hide and seek. Is that true?" The boy nodded, grinning at me.

"Well, I'm not. Let's play something we'd both like. Have you ever played chess?"

"What's chess?"

"Oh, it's a fun game. You'll love it"

I stood and retrieved my old chess set and quickly set it up. I could tell the boy was getting bored just watching me put each piece in it's proper square.

"Alright, now to play-" I was quickly interrupted before I could finish.

"Can I have a snack? I'm hungry."

Well that was a bit manipulative for a child getting out of a boring activity. "Certainly. Would you like the cookies your mother packed?"

"Yeah!" and with that, he ran off into the kitchen. I sighed, grabbed his bag, and followed him.

When I reached the kitchen, Daniel was sitting on the counter, swinging his legs and staring at me with a huge grin on his face. I smiled and put the bag on the table in the center of the room and unpacked the unnaturally green snacks. Ignoring how the cookies were practically luminous, I started."You must really like the color green." The boy looked at me and shrugged.

"Meh. It's alright."

"Everything you have is green."

"Mom likes it."

I stared at the boy for a moment. I knew for a fact that Maddie's favorite color was blue and that Jack's was orange. What reason could the boy possibly have to lie about it. Ah, well. A mystery of an immature mind. I shrugged and handed him a cookie.

He stuffed the cookie in his mouth and smiled as he ate it. Glowing crumbs spilled out of his mouth and onto the pristine white floor. I raised an eyebrow and got out a broom from a cabinet and swept it up.

Unfortunately, by the time I'd finished sweeping, more crumbs had dropped on the floor.I sighed and leaned back against the table, waiting for the boy to finish his cookie.

"Vlad, do you want a cookie?" I looked up at the boy, startled by the offer.

"May I have one?" "Yeah."

"Thank you, Daniel" And with that I reached into the bag and pulled out one of the suspicious looking cookies.

"Why do you call me Daniel?"

"Because it's your name."

"No, it's not. My name is Danny."

"That's you nickname. I prefer your actual name."

"What does prefer mean?"

"It means to like something more than another thing."

"Oh."

Daniel looked up at me when I raised the cookie to my mouth to take a bite.

And immediately spit it out.

Why on EARTH would Maddie feed this to her son? This is ectoplasm! This cookie is made of ectoplasm! It's toxic to humans, why would Maddie poison her son? The only reason I'm not poisoned right now is because I'm half-ghost. But this child, this little, innocent humanchild is probably rotting on the inside because of his parents!

"Vlad what's-"

I sprinted to the phone and dialed Maddie's phone number as fast as I could. The phone rang five times before anybody picked up.

"Hello?" Maddie asked in a tired voice.

"Maddie, you have a lot of explaining to do."

"Vlad? What's wro-"

"Why are you poisoning your son with ectoplasm?"

"Oh."

"'Oh.' That's all you have to say after you attempt to have me murder your son?"

"Vlad listen-" "No, Maddie, I don't want an excuse I want to know why and then I'm going to call an ambulance."

"No! Vlad don't do that. Look, just hear me out, alright. Ask Danny to show you the special video. He'll know what I'm talking about and everything will be explained. Alright? Just- don't call anyone else."

"Fine. But if he starts convulsing on my floor, I will call the cops."

"And you have every right to do so, Vlad. But please, just watch the video. You're his guardian, you deserve to know."

"I'll call you later."

I hung up the phone and sighed, running a hand over my face. I turned back to Daniel, who was staring at me with a worried look on his face.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Daniel. But you need to show my the special video."

Daniel's face fell and he looked down. He walked over to the bag and phased his hand inside, pulling out a homemade DVD in a thin plastic case.

"Daniel, what-?"

"Watch it." he said as he handed me the disc. I stared at the boy incredulously. Had he just put his hand through the wall of a bag and pulled something out? Why could he- what? Something is very clearly not right here. And that is almost definitely an understatement.

I rushed out into a room with a DVD player and quickly popped it inside. Daniel had followed me, but was hiding behind the couch covering his ears.

"Daniel, what's-?" "Watch it." he snipped from his curled up position. My eyes widened and I turned back to the television, flicking it on and starting the DVD.

A grainy video of the Fenton lab started playing, the microphone crackling when an even younger Daniel walked into the room and stood in front of the gaping metal hole in the wall. Daniel slowly approached the hole, looking up at it the whole time. He set his small shoulders in determination, and stepped into the contraption. The only noise heard was the small sound of light footsteps on metal, a click, and a horrible scream. Green light erupted from the device in the wall that now made itself known as a portal. Maddie and Jack came rushing down the stairs, yelling and pulled a body out of the portal.

Daniel's body.

Daniel's body with white hair and a slight glow. His white shirt was black, and his blue jeans were green.

A ghost.

"Danny? Is that you?"

"M-mommy? Wha'happ'n?"

"I-I don't know, Danny sweetie, what do you remember?"

"I wanted to fix the por'al. You and daddy were sad and I didn't want you to be sad anymore so you would play with me and Jazzy. But it hurt."

"Oh, Danny, I'm so sorry."

"Mommy? I feel weird." Daniel whimpered and huddled closer to his mother.

"Oh, sweetie. It's okay. I'm here. I'm here. Mommy's here."

The video all of a sudden cut off and it flickered to an image of Jack, Maddie, a slightly older Daniel, and Jasmine all sitting together on a couch. Maddie opened her mouth to speak.

"If you are watching this video, it means that you have somehow found out a piece Danny's secret and need to be filled in.

Danny's accident that day filled him with electrified ectoplasm, which altered his DNA. The ectoplasm in his system stuck to his DNA, and became a part of it. Making him half ghost.

There was a one in a million chance that this could happen, let alone that he could survive it. But he did.

He has both a ghost form and a human form, and can switch between them whenever he wants. He has most abilities of a ghost, and can also use them in human form. However, he hasn't quite gotten control over everything quite yet, so we paint all of his toys, clothes, blankets, and everything else he's allowed to touch in a safe phase-proof coating. It's perfectly safe to eat and ingest. Without the coating, he has a large chance of dropping it and breaking it, or phasing through the sheets and falling out of bed, or even losing his clothes.

We mix ectoplasm into his food and drinks so his ghost half is fed as well as his human half. During the first few months of his… condition… he nearly starved to death. The only thing that saved him was that he accidentally knocked over a vat of ectoplasm Jack and I had been saving for experiments and ate it all. He needs to eat ectoplasm to live.

He was three when he got his powers. He's four now. Well, when we're making this video, I mean. The government ghost hunting division came through town yesterday. They destroyed a low level ghost right in front of Danny, and-" She cut herself off, tears streaking down her face.

"Danny, honey, could you transform, please?" Daniel looked up at his mother and nodded. He stood up in front of the camera and a white ring formed at his waist. It split and travelled up and down his body, transforming him into the ghost from before.

"Good job, sweetie." Maddie looked solemnly back at the camera and continued gravely.

"If anyone is to find out about Danny, he would be taken from us. He would be taken from his home and his family and locked up. Who knows what they'd do to him? Please, I'm begging you, please keep this a secret. He hasn't done anything wrong. We teach him to use his abilities as little as possible so he can stay safe. Please, don't kill my little boy."

Maddie's voice had started to shake and she finally broke down with that last sentence. She turned and sobbed into her husband's shoulder. Danny transformed back into a human and ran back to his mother, hugging her. Jazz followed his example, and Jack just stared back at the camera for a minute, holding his family, a severe look on his face, before he turned and wept into the mess of people.

The video shut off and Daniel came out from behind the couch, a tear running down his face that he quickly wiped away.

I couldn't believe it.

After all of this time.

Over ten years of thinking I'm a freak.

That I'm completely alone.

Unlovable.

Disfigured.

Ten years.

And for at least three of them, I've had company in this pathetic existence. I didn't know it, but I haven't been alone. This child- this six year old child could relate to me more than anyone else, and I him.

He is alone in his family as what he is as such a vital stage in his development. He's still a child. He's barely in school.

And he is dealing with things better than I ever did when I was in my twenties!

I looked at the child in front of me with wide eyes.

"Vlad?"

"Daniel, I think I may have something to show you and your parents."

I stood up and stared down at Daniel, a grin growing on my face. I grasped the ghost core inside me, bringing it to the surface. Black rings exploded out at my waist, and split.

I glanced at Daniel, watching his reaction.

His eyes were wide and his mouth was parted. His eyebrows furrowed and he opened his mouth more to speak.

"Y-you're like me?" "Yes, Daniel. In college I was in an accident like you were. I'm half ghost too."

Daniel stared up at me, his look of shock grew into a look of excitement and he flew up to me, wrapping his arms around me and squeezing with all his might.

I hugged the only other one of my kind for the first time that night.

And it was good.


End file.
